One of the things that make Sunset Park such an interesting and exciting community is its ethnic diversity. Over the years, Brooklyn has developed its own Chinatown, located in Sunset Park.

In the late 1980s, many of the storefronts along Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park had been abandoned, and at the same time people residing in Manhattan’s Chinatown began looking for a cheaper place to live. Since then, Chinatown has been located along Eighth Avenue from 42nd to 68th Street. Eighth Avenue is lined with Chinese businesses, including grocery stores, restaurants, Buddhist temples, video stores, bakeries, community organizations, and a Hong Kong Supermarket.

Brooklyn’s Chinatown was originally created by in influx of Cantonese immigrants, but over the years there has been an increase in immigrants from the Fujian Province in mainland China, and the area is often now referred to as Little Fuzhou of the Western Hemisphere. Today there is also an influx of people from China's Zhejiang Province. As of the 2009 Census, 29% of the residents of Sunset Park were Asian (most of whom are Chinese).

Brooklyn’s Chinatown is considered one of the fastest growing Chinese enclaves outside of Asia today, although the neighborhood is now quickly losing its Cantonese community identity, which once strongly resembled the western portion of Manhattan's Chinatown. A second Chinatown has also developed in southern Brooklyn, on Avenue U in the Homecrest area. This is evident in the growing number of Chinese-run fruit markets, restaurants, beauty and nail salons, and computer and general electronics dealers.

If you visit Chinatown while in Sunset Park, you will love the variety of restaurants, shops and markets available. Enjoy a delicious lunch or dinner, shop for specialty Asian foods in the many markets, and pick up some decorative paper lanterns to add a festive element to your next social event.